On 23rd of May, India witnessed the world’s largest election result, making Prime Minister Narendra Modi return back to power with another parliamentary majority. BJP single-handedly won 300 seats after marathon election. It became the first party in Indian democracy since 1984 to win back-to-back majorities. However, on an interesting note, it is said that a BJP candidate from Gujrat has won more votes than Modi.

The Man with the Most Number of Votes

There were a lot of shocker moments during the counting of the votes such as Smriti Irani defeating Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, Sumalatha defeating Nikil Kumaraswamy in Mandya and Amit Shah bagging 8.94 lakh votes on his first Lok Sabha participation.

Talking about the number of votes received by each candidate, it looks, it’s not Narendra Modi or Amit Shah who has received the most number of votes, it is CR Patil of BJP who surpassed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory margin from Varanasi.

Narendra Modi – 6,74,664

Amit Shah – 8.94 lakh

CR Patil – 9,72,739

Patil was re-elected in his Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of nearly 4.80 lakh votes. He defeated his Congress rival Dharmeshbhai Bheembhai Patel in the Navsari Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat by a difference of 6.89 lakh votes, the highest in the 2019 polls, and only the second highest ever in election history.

Who Is CR Patil?

Patil was born in 1955 in Jalgaon, Maharashtra. An agriculturist and businessman by profession, he studied at Industrial Training Institute in Surat. He joined the BJP in 1989 and has since held several coveted posts in the party. In 2014, he was appointed a member of the committee on Government Assurances and Constructive Committee of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. He was also appointed as a member of the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in 2015.

Massive Vote Accumulation

Not only CR Patil, but General VK Singh also surpassed Modi, winning over 5 lakh more votes than Samajwadi Party’s Suresh Bansal who came second in the Ghaziabad constituency. Giriraj Singh’s winning margin was 4.44 lakh more than CPI(M)’s Kanhaiya Kumar in Begusarai.

Moreover, BJP President Amith Shah won his maiden Lok Sabha election by a huge margin of 5.57 lakh votes from Gandhinagar surpassing senior party leader Lal Krishna Advani’s margin of 4.83 lakh votes in 2014. Shah’s decision to contest from Gandhinagar led to the maximum number of withdrawals of candidates who were interested.